Brendon McCullum, thought to be on £1.1m a year, is staying on as England head coach. Photo / Getty Images
The luckiest man in English cricket? Perhaps. Yet there are legitimate reasons for Brendon McCullum’s retention as England head coach.
The most obvious is money. McCullum is thought to be on £1.1 million (about $2.54m) a year, and he has 18 months left on his contract. The cost of sacking him would be even greater because any successor would have their own views on whom they would like in their coaching staff.
Who would McCullum’s successor be? When he was appointed four years ago, there was much talk about the need to cultivate potential English successors. But while director of cricket Rob Key has attempted to accelerate the transition to coaching for leading ex-players, there remains a paucity of English coaches in prominent jobs.
Damningly, only one of the eight head coaches in the men’s Hundred is English. Even more damningly, that man is Peter Moores, who is 63 and has already twice been England’s head coach.
As such, the most attractive potential successors to McCullum would be foreign coaches. Andy Flower, another former England head coach, has the best pedigree in the game. While it is possible that he could have been wooed, at considerable cost, Flower is coach of the reigning Indian Premier League champions Royal Challengers Bangalore and has an enviable portfolio of franchise commitments around the world.
The lack of obvious alternatives to McCullum creates a pragmatic case for retaining him. Academic research in football has repeatedly shown that a coach’s effect on a team’s results – if not their method – is generally limited. In cricket, the on-field captain naturally dilutes the head coach’s remit.
For all the allure of the concept of Bazball, England’s style of play in Test cricket over the past four years has owed more to Ben Stokes than McCullum. If coaches generally make only a limited difference, then, barring exceptional cases, it makes sense not to be hasty to sack them. If invested properly – an unknown, of course – the £1m-plus saved by keeping McCullum could do English cricket more good in other areas.
There is also a more positive case for McCullum. In four years as head coach, England have won 26 tests and lost 18. In the previous four-year cycle, England won 22 tests and lost 20. Even the ignominious 4-1 Ashes defeat needs to be understood in context: England had lost by a combined 13-0 in their previous three campaigns.
If the initial excitement about Bazball now looks a little hysterical, McCullum’s achievements as England head coach are real. With Stokes, he revitalised a moribund team, who had won one of their past 17 tests. England can be exasperating, yes, but they are often exhilarating, too.
McCullum’s initial impact was largely reinvigorating senior players such as Jonny Bairstow, James Anderson and Stuart Broad. But even as England’s results have stagnated over the past two years, the age profile of the side has been transformed.
None of Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson had made their test debuts before McCullum took over. Now, all six look likely to be integral to England’s long-term future.
When McCullum arrived in Sri Lanka, before the Twenty20 World Cup, the presumption was that he was in the final throes of his time with England. But over the bilateral series in Sri Lanka, and the ensuing World Cup, he pointed towards real signs of change.
For all their flaws as a team, England showed what the test side too often lacked: adaptability. McCullum was more integral in shaping tactics – pushing Brook to promote himself to three, where he immediately made a century, and continuing to use walkie-talkies, as he first did in Australia, to send messages to players in the dugout. The head coach also accepted the return of Carl Hopkinson as specialist fielding coach, which led to more arduous training sessions. England’s fielding improved notably.
In the Ashes, there were signs of tactical – though never personal – disagreements between McCullum and Stokes for the first time. Yet with Stokes supportive of McCullum staying on, the two can build their relationship anew, with the head coach recognising the captain’s belief that England need to be less dogmatic in their commitment to playing adventurously. As England begin, however reluctantly, to imagine a post-Stokes world, McCullum’s value is heightened by his rapport with Brook.
Yet England must be realistic about who their head coach is. McCullum will not change dramatically, nor should he. As in any job, constant evolution is welcome. But he also needs to remain true to who he is.
The anger about McCullum’s planned return to England only a few days before the first test against New Zealand is understandable. Coming back to the country, say, two weeks before the test series, would allow him time to not just prepare, but also meet county coaches, and even see some domestic cricket.
But, four years into his job, it would be the height of absurdity to imagine that McCullum will suddenly develop expert knowledge of the county game. This is not the coach he will ever be. More than McCullum changing, England should be attempting to rebalance the set-up around him.
Since McCullum took over as test coach in 2022, the entire England set-up has come to look more like him. Two of his main assistants, Jeetan Patel and Tim Southee, played under McCullum with New Zealand. Where the white-ball set-up initially offered a different perspective – albeit with increasingly underwhelming results – McCullum has been head coach of those teams since the start of last year, too. Luke Wright, whose stint as national selector has just ended, was appointed with the expectation that he would be congenial and largely deferential to McCullum.
Perhaps England’s problems are better understood as being less about McCullum than about the balance of the team management. The men who have surrounded him mirrored his skills rather than complementing them.
The result has been a common problem in organisations of like-minded individuals: group-think. The United States’ disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, conceived by the so-called whiz kids in the Kennedy White House, remains the classic case. As Irving L. Janis explored in his study of group-think, the president was surrounded by people reinforcing each other’s decision-making, rather than challenging it. The failing was not individual, but collective: the very strength of these ties was a barrier to debate.
So it has been in English cricket. The standard-bearer for England’s approach to selection has been Zak Crawley. Yet the mantra that Crawley’s worth cannot be measured in conventional statistics has stubbornly ignored that no opener in test history has played as much while averaging as little as his 31.18. Crawley was said to be uniquely well-suited to Australian conditions; he averages 27.43 in eight tests Downunder.
Key has already admitted that England have “overplayed” continuity in selection. The selection panel needs constructive challenge from an empowered, independent-minded selector; Mark Butcher would be a prime candidate. Whoever it is must be chosen because they won’t default to the head coach.
The first iteration of McCullum as England head coach has largely focused on what he does well: building team culture, backing young players and restoring the essential enjoyment of playing for England. This is a not-insignificant list. He should resist the impulse to change too much. Instead, England should aim for evolution: a permanent fielding coach, more rigour in training, making good on the plans to play meaningful warm-up games before test series, and a strong new selector.
After persisting with him, it would be perverse for England to undermine McCullum. Paradoxically, by recognising his limitations, and adjusting the set-up accordingly, England can liberate him to focus on his strengths. England might not need a new coach, but they emphatically need a better system to support the man they already have.
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